Server setup

[nasimbhmn]

Hi,

I’m trying to set up a stand-alone server, but I keep receiving a strange error. I installed python 2 on my server and made a folder “PCIbex” inside which I copied the folder of my experiment. I downloaded the archive of my experiment from PCIbex and extracted the folder before moving it to the server.
I navigated to the folder “www” and ran python server.py --genhtml ./. No message appeared (I don’t know if that’s normal or not). The original Ibex documentation says that this command should start the server on port 3000 by default. But I cannot reach http://myipaddress:3000/experiment.html. Does it mean that something is wrong?

I continued with navigation to the root directory of the repo where all the experiment files are located and ran the following command:
sh mkdist.sh 0.3-beta-1234

This time I got the following error:

*** Remember to run server.py with the --genhtml option if necessary. ***

cp: invalid option -- 'X'
Try 'cp --help' for more information.
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/LICENSE: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/README: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/mkdist.sh: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/example_lighttpd.conf: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/docs/manual.md: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/www/conf.js: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/www/jsDump.js: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/css_includes/*.css: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/js_includes/*.js: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/data_includes/*.js: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/www/json.js: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/www/server.py: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/server_conf.py: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/www/shuffle.js: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/www/jquery*.js: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/www/PluginDetect.js: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/www/experiment.html: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/www/overview.html: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/www/util.js: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/www/backcompatcruft.js: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/other_includes/main.js: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/chunk_includes/*.html: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/www/soundmanager2-jsmin.js: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: ibex-0.3-beta-1234/www/soundmanager2_debug.swf: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors

I don’t understand why it says No such file or directory. I can see all the files are there.
Could someone please help me understand what’s going on and how I can fix this?

Very best, Nasim

• This topic was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by nasimbhmn.

[Jeremy]

Hi Nasim,

The documentation is a little confusing about this, but setting up an experiment on a webserver is actually simpler than that, assuming your server readily runs CGI Python scripts (most do).

You should follow the step-by-step CGI instructions. The references to webspr are outdated, but in any case, if you don’t rename any file, the only thing you need to edit (if I remember correctly) is line 20 of server_conf.py to SERVER_MODE = "cgi" (so only bullet 5 from the documentation should be relevant). Then your experiment will be accessible at https://your.domain/path/experiment.html and automatically served on port 80/443 (depending on whether you’re on http or https)

The “stand-alone” mode from the Ibex documentation refers to running the experiment locally, that is, not on a webserver. I sometimes use it when I develop experiments on my own computer, I open a terminal, navigate to the www folder of my project, type python server.py, then I open my browser and visit http://localhost:3000/experiment.html and there I can see my experiment running

I have never needed to run sh mkdist.sh

Let me know whether you were able to run your experiment

Jeremy

[nasimbhmn]

Thanks, Jeremy! Yes, the Ibex documentation is really confusing.
With your explanations, it’s more clear now. I will try again and let you know.

Best, Nasim

[nasimbhmn]

Hi Jeremy,

I still have a problem with running PCIbex on my server. Here is what I did:

In order to add a domain to my server, first I need to add a user. So, my domain will be added to a www folder at this address: /home/users/myusername/www. I copied the whole folder of my experiment into this www folder. I edited the server_conf.py as you said. Then ran the server.py inside the www folder of the experiment (located at/home/users/myusername/www/pcibex_experiment/www), and I got the following error:

  File "server.py", line 1844, in <module>
    for l in control(env, start_response):
  File "server.py", line 1499, in control
    base = env['PATH_INFO']
KeyError: 'PATH_INFO'

Can you tell me what’s going wrong?

Best, Nasim

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by nasimbhmn.

[Jeremy]

Hi Nasim,

If you’re going with a CGI setup, you do not need to run any script yourself: your webserver will take care of doing it itself when you visit your experiment’s page in a browser

Do you get an error when you visit your experiment’s page?

Jeremy

[nasimbhmn]

Ahh, sorry for not reading your last reply carefully!
I just visited the experiment page. There is no error, but only a blank page appears.

[Jeremy]

Maybe your webserver does not automatically execute CGI scripts then, would you mind sharing your experiment’s URL with me, here or at support@pcibex.net?

Jeremy

[nasimbhmn]

Sure, I will send it right away.

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